SPEED cameras are an emotive issue as the letters page of the Redditch Advertiser this week and last will attest.

Only at the weekend, a speed camera on the A435 in Coughton was torched.

Last week, the Advertiser was contacted by a number of motorists angry at a "sneaky" speed trap in Birchfield Road, Webheath.

They had been slapped with £60 fines and three penalty points on their licences for travelling six or seven miles an hour over the 30mph limit.

The cameras generally allow a 10 per cent plus 2mph leeway before they are triggered. So in a 30mph zone, anything above 35mph will find drivers receiving an unwelcome surprise in the post.

What riles most of the anti-camera lobby though is the lack of discretion inherent in the system.

Redditch motorist Martin Salves was prosecuted after doing 37mph along the road.

"It's unfair to have a speed trap outside the built-up portion of Birchfield Road," he said.

"The council says this road has had numerous accidents on it. If it has, a live camera should be installed permanently on the part of the road most in need of protection or other calming devices like a roundabout or humps could be used.

"It just antagonises motorists and of course it's a good revenue earner for the Government and very simple to set up.

"In the old days you'd get pulled up by the police and told off. But now you just get hammered. There's no discretion."

But Birchfield Road is an accident blackspot according to the West Mercia Safety Camera Partnership, a body comprising the police, county council and health authority.

Within a kilometre of the mobile camera site, four people were killed or seriously wounded in accidents between 1999 and 2001 and another 13 collisions resulted in injury.

Since April that camera - which turns up in a van about twice a week - has caught 448 motorists travelling northbound only.

Another one on Studley Road has caught 601 motorists while one in Coldfield Drive has caught 243.

A permanent camera may now be installed along Birchfield Road.

Camera partnership communications manager Heather Mead said: "Birchfield Road is a problem area but we do agree the residential area up the road would benefit from a camera. The reason it's where it is is because the van can park safely off the road.

"There are three signs warning of the camera as well.

"As for 30mph signs, it should be taken as read the limit is 30mph unless otherwise stated. It's in the Highway Code.

"But we are not trying to catch people out. We are trying to get them to slow down. Our targets are not offence led, they are casualty reduction led and we only reclaim our operating costs."

The Speed Camera Partnership website is at www.speedaware.org.uk